What's the point of dwelling on all the negative?

I understand staying informed about the world, there's nothing wrong with that. I just don't see the point of leaving the TV on all day watching them rehash the events over and over. What does that bring you?

Why are we so attracted to bad shit? We hate it, but we love it.

I just feel like at a certain point it's just bringing us down, and I don't see how that's good. I'm not saying we sure ignore all the bad shit and pretend it didn't happen, but why do we feel such an attachment to it? Why do we constantly need to find bad shit to dwell on?

"it's like, you can be funny and rediculous and also not be an offensive douche." - Puns

“People who see life as anything more than pure entertainment are missing the point.” - George Carlin

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” -Ernest Hemingway

Disclaimer: The bullshit in my posts is probably all bullshit and therefore not true. Please take it as such. Sorry If somehow something offends you. It's only the intrawebs.

Bad news sells, first of all. That's because being interested in something morbid/horrible/tragic is kind of human nature, has been since the time of the Coliseum. No one particularly wants to dwell on it, but yeah if you turn on CNN or some other 24/7 news channel you will probably see mostly bad news. No news=good news applies, and because they need to fill space, bad news dominates.

Shit man, no one's forcing you to do anything besides scroll through reddit.com/r/aww all day. But sometimes the world is shitty, and being realistic about that is helpful for our worldview.

Honestly, how much money do you think news channels make on days like today, probably a lot more than a typical day of news. Its hard because people do need to be informed but they are also guilty of taking advantage of awful situation.

News channels have always walked a line between honest journalism and playing up the fear, despair, hopelessness for their own personal gain. You have to make your own choices in what you want to listen to.

I used to watch the news for a good 10-15 mins every day on TV.
I used to check CNN every few hours if at a computer.

This might have gone on for 7 or 8 years, without me realising what I was even doing. After that long, though, I realised that everything they show is just the same shit, in different conditions or situations. Most of it is war. Some of it is junk like fashion, and even sports seems to repeat itself, even though I still enjoy it a little. Then there is politics, which is like watching a bouncy ball going between two walls forever. Interesting until you realise that nothing ever happens.

Now, all I check is the weather forecast, NS, youtube if I want some music or random vids (which I can choose), a few other interesting forums, and other peoples' photos.

Glad to say that I do not own a TV, because it really does not have a place in my life.

I agree, we are attracted to it. George Carlin did some stuff on the subject.(I know comedian, but it was pretty spot on) We get off on bad stuff happening. It's human nature but that doesn't mean that it's good, or something we need to do. IDK

I think you completely missed my point. Maybe I wasn't clear on what I was saying, it happens. Actually I think you did straight up miss what I was saying. "I'm not saying we sure ignore all the bad shit and pretend it didn't happen"
I was saying it's good to be realistic, but there's a difference between recognizing something and dwelling on it.

I've never even used reddit but nice point. What more do you gain after watching the story 5 times, from watching it for the next 10 hours. That was my point.

Everyone dwells on the bad shit, saying "Why is the world such a terrible place" Then the next day go right back to being assholes to each other. If it changed people for the better and made people think, "This world is fucked up, lets be better people", then that's something positive.

"it's like, you can be funny and rediculous and also not be an offensive douche." - Puns

“People who see life as anything more than pure entertainment are missing the point.” - George Carlin

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” -Ernest Hemingway

Disclaimer: The bullshit in my posts is probably all bullshit and therefore not true. Please take it as such. Sorry If somehow something offends you. It's only the intrawebs.

i think its in part because bad things are more interesting than good things, but also deeper than that. when you see something good that happens on the news, like, say, someone saving someones life from a burning building or something, its easy to make sense and understand the rationale behind it: as a person you generally want to try and help those around you/prevent them from getting hurt and suffering. it makes sense to us. something like shooting a bunch of school children doesn't make sense. we want to understand what makes a person want to do that, why they would do it, even how they could do it. i think, deep down, we feel that if we can somehow understand something so horrible and incomprehensible to most of us it will somehow make it better. so i guess its a sort of coping mechanism? of course this is all merely guessing on my part, so make of it what you will.

its not just bad things. Remember when the pilot landed his plane in the hudson river? thats shit was on all news stations non stop. it just that bad thing happen more often than amazingly good things.

I'm a big fan of instead of positive feedback and only constructive negative feedback ONLY constructive feedback in general. when someone's like that was rad! I'm like.. but... tell me why plis.

I guess I agree, but I think focusing on the bad in a way/for the purpose of progress and critical thinking is important, and what I spend a lot of time doing. It can be disheartening but heart can be taken in the realization of change and setting at the very least an idea for change in your mind.

Either decide to change it, then do it, or decide to not worry about it - what gets me through the day.

For most people, it's easier to rationalize all of the negativity, hate, bigotry, racism, etc. Than the good in the world. That's not to say there isn't good in the world, there is, it's just in small trivial amounts in comparison to the bad. I think that's the simplest explanation, not necessarily the best, but I think that's how I make sense of it.

My other ride is your mom.

"Freedom leads to creativity." -weird guy at the beginning of hurricane season

There is no point per say. I think people enjoy it because it keeps egos in check by feeling sympathetic or empathetic. And at the same time it can make them feel "well at least thats not me". Another thing is people have a basic desire for knowledge I believe. Especially knowledge of what to be afraid of.

I actually thought of that when posting. That was the first one in my head. There are plenty of good things that happen everyday on a lesser scale, but something bad that's smaller seems to grab our attention.

There's def a deep attraction to bad shit. Somewhere inside of us we love it.

I don't think it's true that there are way more bad things happening than good things. If you look around you there is still plenty of good. I guess that's what I was trying to say in a way.

"it's like, you can be funny and rediculous and also not be an offensive douche." - Puns

“People who see life as anything more than pure entertainment are missing the point.” - George Carlin

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” -Ernest Hemingway

Disclaimer: The bullshit in my posts is probably all bullshit and therefore not true. Please take it as such. Sorry If somehow something offends you. It's only the intrawebs.

what? you think it is easier to rationalize bad than good? so a guy killing 20 elementary school kids makes more sense to you than someone pulling someone else out of the street before they get hit by a car?

This is what irks me the most about kids committing suicide because they were being bullied. Whenever I see stories like that on the news, Majority of the time they interview random-ass kids who probably never spoke to the kid and probably contributed to his outcast-ing in school. I feel like half the kids are saying they are all sad and sympathetic because everyone else is doing it. You can really tell who was really effected and close to the kids. And it was probably just his parents.

"One little kid died trying to be me" - Krob

&#8206;"Skiing could use more Shane McConkey's, and fewer outsiders looking to make money off it." - Derek Taylor.

"with all due respect get fucked. dont your ever talk to the man like that ever again. the internet is an amazing tool. i will find you " - Marg.

Yes. I do. In this world we recognize and see so much more negative than good through our lifetimes than good, at least we hear about it. Sure, thousands of "good" deeds are committed each day, but the majority of those are small things. Then we hear about shootings like this, and they happen monthly, all the time. That was my point.

My other ride is your mom.

"Freedom leads to creativity." -weird guy at the beginning of hurricane season

I replied to this and my NS lagged out, trying to post what I said the first time, ish.

I agree that using it for progress is good. If you see something bad and it motivates you to make some positive changes then there's some good right there. I just feel like a lot of people post the obligatory facebook status about how touched they are, then 2 minutes later go back to no caring. The same with the 9/11 thing. Slightly different as this is a current even but still.

If you really cared, instead of making a facebook status making sure I know you care, you would go and do something positive as a result. That's just my opinion though. It just seems like too many people post about how much the world sucks, and + vibes, then go back to being an asshole the next day, unchanged.

And I hear ya

"it's like, you can be funny and rediculous and also not be an offensive douche." - Puns

“People who see life as anything more than pure entertainment are missing the point.” - George Carlin

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” -Ernest Hemingway

Disclaimer: The bullshit in my posts is probably all bullshit and therefore not true. Please take it as such. Sorry If somehow something offends you. It's only the intrawebs.

I'm not sure where, when this happened. I just remember hearing about it at some point in time.

This kid killed himself and all these kids showed up to the funeral, and the mom was like " Who are these people?" I never saw any of them, they weren't friends to my son etc.

Not sure exactly what she said but it was along those lines. Honestly a valid point. People were a douche to the kid, bullied him non stop. nobody seemed to care, then he killed himself and everybody was suddenly his best friend. If that was more recently a thousand people would have + vibes etc on facebook.

Pretty intense though and can you blame her?

What the hell do people get out of being dicks to each other? People will go out of there way just to make somebody else feel like shit, it baffles me.

"it's like, you can be funny and rediculous and also not be an offensive douche." - Puns

“People who see life as anything more than pure entertainment are missing the point.” - George Carlin

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” -Ernest Hemingway

Disclaimer: The bullshit in my posts is probably all bullshit and therefore not true. Please take it as such. Sorry If somehow something offends you. It's only the intrawebs.

We're morbid fucks as far as humanity, we just try to sugar coat it. When something bad happens people are like "OMG that's so horrible, now give me all the horrible deetz! Are there pictures, videos, awww, that's so horrible though"

“After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.”

Dec 14 2012 11:20PM

All times are Eastern (-4)

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